Rectangular capture area to circular combustor scramjet engine

A new concept for a scramjet engine design was presented. The inlet transformed a rectangular shaped capture stream into a cross section which was almost circular in shape at the inlet throat or combustor entrance. The inlet inner surface was designed by the method of streamline tracing. The high pressure and temperature regions of the combustor were almost circular in shape and thus the benefits of hoop stresses in relation to structural weight could be utilized to reduce combustor and engine weights. The engine had a center body consisting of a 20 deg included angle cone, followed by a constant diameter cylinder. Fuel injection struts were arranged in a radial array and were swept 54 deg from the center body to the inlet inner surface and had values of length to maximum average thickness between 5.6and 6.6 which were felt to be structurally reasonable. Combustor wetted areas were shown to be less than those of the present fully rectangular engine concept.